Dorothy Parker

Who was Dorothy Parker?

Dorothy Parker was an American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist, best known for her wit, wisecracks, and eye for 20th-century urban foibles.

From a conflicted and unhappy childhood, Parker rose to acclaim, both for her literary output in such venues as The New Yorker and as a founding member of the Algonquin Round Table. Following the breakup of the circle, Parker traveled to Hollywood to pursue screenwriting. Her successes there, including two Academy Award nominations, were curtailed as her involvement in left-wing politics led to a place on the Hollywood blacklist.

Dismissive of her own talents, she deplored her reputation as a "wisecracker". Nevertheless, her literary output and reputation for her sharp wit have endured.

Famous Quotes:

• She runs the gamut of emotions from A to B.
• There's a helluva distance between wisecracking and wit. Wit has truth in it; wisecracking is simply calisthenics with words.
• I shall stay the way I am because I do not give a damn.
• Sorrow is tranquility remembered in emotion.
• They sicken at the calm that know the storm.
• I can't talk about Hollywood. It was a horror to me when I was there and it's a horror to look back on. I can't imagine how I did it. When I got away from it I couldn't even refer to the place by name. Out there, I called it.
• Work is the province of cattle.
• Hollywood money isn't money. It's congealed snow, melts in your hand, and there you are.
• Those who have mastered etiquette, who are entirely, impeccably right, would seem to arrive at a point of exquisite dullness.
• I don't care what anybody says about me as long as it isn't true.